Dr. Cara Gargano is Professor of Dance and Theatre in the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Arts Management at the Post Campus of Long Island University. As a dancer, she studied at the New York School of Ballet under Richard Thomas and Barbara Fallis, and later taught at the school. She has performed both as a dancer and as an actress and her concert choreography has received warm reviews from The New York Times and has been presented in Europe as well as in the United States. As a stage director and choreographer, she has worked in theatre, opera and musical comedy. She holds a Ph.D. in French language and literature from the City University of New York’s Graduate Center and has published in both English and French. Cara’s recent research focuses on the intersection of science and the performing arts, with specific application to nineteenth-century social and political reception of dance and theatre. She has written extensively on Québécois theatre and served a translator for Marie Laberge’s novel Juillet, and Dancourt’s play Les Bourgeoises à la Mode. She is twice Past President of the Congress on Research in Dance and Recipient of the Dixie Durr Award for Outstanding Service to Dance Research. Recently she has presented papers in Madrid, Spain and at the Opera House in Rome Italy. She will be presently her research at the Oxford Dance Symposium at Oxford University in Spring 2023.